James R. Edwards

Edwards does an excellent job surveying the Patristic sources, tracking down the 'Hebrew Gospel', and is persuasive in his suggestion that scholars should distinguish between an early Hebrew Gospel, and a later corrupted text which the church fathers rejected. He also offers powerful evidence that laying behind Luke is that early Hebrew Gospel: the Greek of the Lukan text has a dramatically disproportionate number of Semitisms. Edwards does go on to affirm recent academic developments that show more calls Q into question, but it may be too soon to say adieu to the hypothesis altogether. This text is clearly a major step in Lukan studies and will become required reading any serious student of the Gospel. show less

I have quickly become a big fan of the Pillar New Testament Commentary series, of which The Gospel According to Mark by James R. Edwards is the 2nd of the set, which currently comprises 14 volumes (the entire set can be seen here).

Although I've given this volume 5 stars, there are some serious editorial and publishing issues in the Kindle version (I have both Kindle and print versions) which significantly detract from the electronic work. The number of conjoined words is too numerous to list show more (a handful: "Israel'sojourn", Location 1513; "leper'entrance", 1586; "mininstryin", 1781; "orunusual", 2258; "ofthe", 8584; "Hellenisticworld", 8692; etc.). Toward the beginning of the Kindle version, numerous words beginning with "i" have some form of the word "Introduction" erroneously appended to it ("Introductionernal", Location 432; "Introductionerest", 432; "Introductionention", 446; "Introductionerpreter", 460; "Introductiono", 460; etc.). Similarly, in one paragraph spanning Locations 540 - 554, "Quintillian" is represented as "QuIntroductionilian" no less than six times. Other minor typos are far too frequent. However, the abundance of editorial or publishing errors are more of an annoyance and ultimately do not detract from the five stars that I give Edwards' work.

These Kindle-specific editorial and publishing errors get worse. There are four lengthy indices at the end of the book ("Modern Authors"; "Subjects", "Scripture References", and "Extrabibilical Literature"). In the print version, these indices span 38 pages of what looks to be small 9 or 10-point type at the end of the book. In the Kindle version, however, there are no page numbers (or Location numbers) at all, rendering this section useless. Whether this was a conscious decision (due to the fact that this Kindle version has no page numbers per se, but only Location numbers), or an outright error I do not know; still, it deprives the Kindle reader of a very powerful reference and access to Edwards' considerable scholarship.

It is this scholarship that makes the commentary so worthwhile. Opinion is supported with numerous erudite references; alternative views are also presented. Refreshingly, Edwards proves that scholarship is not mutually exclusive from orthodoxy; his theological views can be characterized as conservative. In the Series Preface, editor D.A. Carson sums it up better than I can: "Good commentaries on the canonical Gospels are particularly difficult to write. The demands are considerable: fine historical sense and theological maturity; working with diverse literary genres; a thorough grasp of both Jewish and Greco-Roman backgrounds; a command of the vast secondary literature without letting that literature dictate the agenda or swamp the reader with endless peripheral details. James Edwards meets these challenges admirably. His commentary reflects a lifetime of study, a quality of judgment that is knowledgeable and sure-footed. To all this he adds a quiet reverence for the text that is both appropriate and edifying."

My admiration for this book prompted me to look for a commentary on Luke in the same series; it does not yet exist. But I learned that Professor Edwards was working on it, so I emailed him for some additional information, and he graciously responded. His commentary on Luke is complete, and is in the hands of the editors at Eerdman's; hopefully it will be available this year. So while I await that volume, I've gone ahead and purchased the series commentary on John; and I further purchased Edwards' The Hebrew Gospel & The Development of the Synoptic Tradition, which further bolsters my respect for his scholarship. show less

A fascinating story of someone who has been forgotten not only deliberately by the Soviets but also by everyone else. Here's a story of a devout German Christian who also was a soldier in WWI and WWII. My only complaint is at some points this feels more like a biography of the author rather than Ernst Lohmeyer. Still well worth the read.

When I first started to read the Gospel According to Mark by Jorge Luis Borges, I didn’t realize that embedded into the story are religious references; therefore, it was extremely difficult for me to pick out the ironies and meaning behind the plot. As a person that lacks the knowledge with her own religion, I couldn’t quite comprehend the direct connection between the protagonist in the story to some religious background; henceforth, I interpreted this story in a different manner. I show more focused more on Baltasar Espinoza and his character’s development. In the beginning of the story, the narrator gave Baltasar an impression of a typical educated, ordinary man. Through the description, there was nothing really special about him. His archetype is that of a common man that goes on a quest to be changed and change. His ‘call to adventure’ started when his cousin invited him to spend his summer on La Colorada ranch. This can be considered as the crossing of threshold even though there is no actual crossing involved. During the transition from being in a known world to the unknown world, I see the changes within Baltasar. He was in this urban ambiance with a medical-centered mindset but slowly through his stay at the ranch, he transformed into something quite the opposite from his original self. Through reading the English bible and reading to the Gutres family, his character blended into the rural, natural, and uneducated environment. As his character developed, I found some ironies with the way he is presented. For instance, Baltasar is a thirty-three year old medical student who should be entailed to a prospective bright future. The first question I asked myself was, “How can someone be in his 30’s and still working to be ‘qualified for graduation in the subject to which he was most drawn.’ It didn’t make any sense to me. On top of that, he was someone that worshipped ‘France but despised the French and thought little of Americans but approved the fact that they were tall buildings.’ The narrator indication about Baltasar made readers believe that this protagonist’s way of thinking seems to be is be all over the place. He believes in the former but not the latter. It wasn’t until his character had exposure to the bible, does he knowledge and views on certain things become more stable. I was able to verify this when he was able to answer Gutre’s question about hell and Christ. A subject that was once unfamiliar or insignificant to him was now something he yearns to learn more about. As a reader, I could infer that his character eventually reaches the end of his journey as he witnessed the beams that replaced a cross. He will soon return from the ranch as a different man. show less